Data and analytics is one of the top priorities for us as an organization, from support for individual patient care, to managing populations of patients and population health. And we are a large academic medical center, and so research is a key priority as well. And in terms of healthcare as a business, the data and analytics support appropriate business decisions, and so the focus on data and analytics has been strong really from the get-go, but I would say it has accelerated in the last two to three years, and will continue to do so.

A panel of Austin entrepreneurs talked about the integration of marketing, sales, and software yesterday at a Salesforce event for small business users of the monolithic Customer Relationship Management platform.

For Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS), a well-connected health IT infrastructure with a focus on communication and patient engagement tools has pulled double duty: not only does it help clinicians deliver a high quality patient experience, but it has also landed the health system’s three hospitals on this year’s “Most Wired” list for technology-driven organizations.

Customer relationship management software being used at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut improved patient satisfaction scores considerably between last September and this past March.
In terms of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores, the facility saw increases of four to 13 points in the past six months, says Michael Bennick, MD, medical director of patient experience at Yale New Haven. The facility did particularly well in metrics that include staff responsiveness, room quietness and cleanliness, nurse and physician communication, discharge procedures, pain management and environmental issues.

Humm, an on-premise realtime feedback platform today announced its increased focus on the healthcare industry marked with a new relationship with Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). Working in partnership with YNHH, Humm is delivering realtime patient feedback to seven clinical specialties within the hospital and giving caregivers the ability to fine tune their operations and processes to create the optimal environment for patients and staff.

Few people know the restaurant business better than celebrity chef Robert Irvine. Now, he's helping hospitality brands take their business to the next level as partner at Humm, a real-time feedback platform aimed at uncovering and improving the guest experience -- from menu selection to server friendliness to overall ambiance.
Along with chef Irvine we spoke to Bernard Briggs, co-founder and CEO of Humm to about why they're both so passionate about investing in food tech.

In a world where guests are more connected than ever, every interaction can be a make or break situation, with opinions — both good and bad — broadcast almost instantaneously to mass audiences via social media. For restaurants like AXELS (www.axelsrestaurants.com), a tech-savvy demographic of guests have higher expectations than ever before, and a strong desire to be heard by the companies they choose to frequent.

Austin Regional Clinic (ARC) physicians and officials know patient feedback is important, but getting patients to provide it can be a challenge. In fact, historically, ARC is lucky if one-tenth of its patients use the clinic's surveys to weigh in on the service and care they received.
But a pilot program of a new, real-time feedback system provided ARC patients a high-tech convenience previous attempts lacked and produced participation numbers dwarfing those past efforts. ARC's initial results with the system, in which patients answer five to seven questions on a computer tablet and can leave free-text comments, were so successful the clinic is already planning to expand it to all of its locations by the end of June.

Every retailer knows it is important to build, enhance and nuture the customer relatonship, and most are seeking to do the best job possible. As one expert relates, it's not a simple or one-step effort. Retail Customer Experience asked Humm CEO Bernard Briggs for his insight as his company is helping retailers, across a wide range of indusries, shore up and bolster the customer relationship.

Austin Regional Clinic (ARC) physicians and officials know patient feedback is important, but getting patients to provide it can be a challenge. In fact, historically, ARC is lucky if one-tenth of its patients use the clinic's surveys to weigh in on the service and care they received.
But a pilot program of a new, real-time feedback system provided ARC patients a high-tech convenience previous attempts lacked and produced participation numbers dwarfing those past efforts. ARC's initial results with the system, in which patients answer five to seven questions on a computer tablet and can leave free-text comments, were so successful the clinic is already planning to expand it to all of its locations by the end of June.

Humm, an on-premise real-time feedback platform, and MedSpring Urgent Care, today announced a partnership aimed at improving the patient experience through the use of Humm-powered feedback tablets in 33 locations across the country. After a successful pilot launch at three MedSpring locations in mid-June 2015, MedSpring has deployed Humm in all of its urgent care centers nationwide, including locations in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Houston.

Typically, patient-satisfaction surveys aren’t given to patients until the end of their visit, or shortly after they’re discharged. This means hospitals don’t get feedback on patients’ experiences until long after they’ve left. However, one hospital is taking a different approach to gathering feedback. Yale-New Haven Hospital System’s new strategy combines technology with practices often seen in the hospitality industry.

As 2016 rolls in, a top priority on everyone's resolution list is how to be more productive. Whether it's keeping better notes, time management or limiting distractions, everyone wants to hit the ground running in 2016. As we close out the first week of the new year, we asked CEO's about what how they focus their energy on tackling big projects and their favorite productivity apps.

Just about every company we've come across covering Austin tech has a board of advisors. A board of advisors generally uses it's connections to help companies get in front of investors and potential customers, advises founders on how to improve their processes, and helps CEO's run their company.

World Food Championships today announced that Humm will be the official Technology partner for the 2015 World Food Championships, taking place Nov 3-10 in Kissimmee, Florida. The WFC is the largest competition in food sport, where champions of previous events compete for a chance at winning the ultimate food crown and a share of $300,000.

As feedback sessions are completed, the results are immediately available to clinic managers, allowing them to effectively make improvements and resolve issues on the spot or praise staff for a great job. Just eight weeks after launch, ARC has collected feedback from more than 4000 visits.

Since implementing the tool and the data dashboard in 2013, Nath has seen double-digit yearly growth in revenue at the restaurants using the technology, which surpasses previous growth rates, according to Wachman. In addition, the general customer satisfaction score at the restaurants has increased from an average of 88% to 95%.

Lynae Harrison, electronic medical records operations manager at ARC, said the clinic has received 4,000 responses since beginning the pilot in late June. “We’ve definitely never had that type of response,” she said.

Briggs is now hoping to expand from Humm's 400 customers to 5,000. Currently, about 75% of Humm's customers are restaurants, such as Truluck's, Moonshine and HopDoddy's, and roughly 25% are healthcare providers.

Doing this starts with capturing the right data at the right time. Real-time feedback platforms are enabling this for the first time. It’s rooted in an understanding of psychology and knowing that people have an emotional need to be heard.

We have taken advantage of this outstanding community by developing partnerships with tech companies that are reinventing aspects of the healthcare field. ...We are also collecting patient feedback in three of our clinics using technology from local company, Humm.

We use Humm Systems, allowing our customers to rate us before they leave the restaurant. When the customer gets the check they also get an iPad which surveys them about the overall service. We get it in real time, so if there is anything wrong with our service or the food, we have the ability to fix the issue before they walk out of the door.

First-time Breakthrough Award winner, Truluck’s Restaurant Group has been recognized for innovation in customer engagement for its implementation of a customer feedback platform that uses the tenets of psychology in order to pinpoint customers’ emotional peaks.

In the newest Net Promoter System podcast episode, we hear from two people who have recognized this dynamic and are trying to do something about it. Bernard Briggs is the CEO and founder of Humm, a company that provides systems for collecting customer feedback at restaurants, stores and other retail environments. Robert Irvine is a restaurant owner and the host of the popular Food Network show, Restaurant: Impossible. He has actually put the system to use at his restaurants.

Want to know what customers are saying about your restaurant online and on-premise? Humm Systems provides access to all reviews, meaning you won’t have to perform extensive internet searches or read dozens of feedback cards. Humm also features a widget for sharing positive feedback on all social channels instantly and easily.

In a social media-savvy market like Austin, it’s hard to imagine restaurateurs who aren’t aware of the online responses to their business. However, being out of touch with customer feedback can be a serious problem.